In the late 1970’s and early 80’s, Larry Johnson started going on mission trips with his local church, First Baptist of San Angelo, Texas, where he used his farming and contracting background to help build a church in Brazil. A few years later, he successfully raised money to buy a well drilling rig after experiencing drought conditions in the area they served, and once he got it back to Brazil, he was “hooked." Joy and Larry surrendered to become foreign missionaries serving with the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board. When deciding where to serve, Larry saw a request in a missionaries magazine for an agricultural missionary for Cajamarca, Peru. After 3 months of language school in Costa Rica, Joy and Larry were off to Cajamarca.